CRISPR runs through it: From targeting diseases to transforming farming, gene editing has ushered in a science revolution
CRISPR runs through it: From targeting diseases to transforming farming, gene editing has ushered in a science revolution
Ten years after Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier first introduced their discovery of CRISPR, it has remained at the center of ambitious scientific projects and complicated ethical discussions. It continues to create new avenues for exploration and reinvigorate old studies. Biochemists use it, and so do other scientists: entomologists, cardiologists, oncologists, zoologists, botanists.
[Botanist Dr. Cathie] Martin’s lab used CRISPR to create a tomato plant that can accumulate vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. Just one gram of the leaves contained 60 times the recommended daily value for adults.
Martin explained that CRISPR could be used across a broad spectrum of food modifications. It could potentially remove allergens from nuts and create plants that use water more efficiently.
…
Karen Massel, a biotechnologist at the University of Queensland in Australia, saw quite a bit of room for improvement when she first started studying the plant in 2015. And because millions of people eat sorghum worldwide, “if you make a small change you can have a huge impact,” she said.
She and her colleagues have used CRISPR to try to make sorghum frost tolerant, to make it heat tolerant, to lengthen its growth period, to change its root structure — “we use gene editing across the board,” she said.
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